


That's Not Soda-Pressing!

by Browa123



Series: Beverages and Bonding [4]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Beverages And Bonding, Enemies to Friends, Fluff, Gen, If the title wasn't obvious, Not Phantom Planet Compliant, Today's drink is soda pop!, relationship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 13:09:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17601962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/pseuds/Browa123
Summary: Dash is in a foul mood after Paulina called off their relationship. The result leaves Dash off of his carefully held spot on the A-List and out of his popularity. He finds himself at the local grease dump, Nasty Burger, to clear his head when he spots his favorite punching bag.Though he's not in the mood to go pounding his face in today, maybe he can vent out to a nerd he know will never tell if he wants to keep his ribs in tact.





	That's Not Soda-Pressing!

Dash downs the refill of cola without abandon as he stands by the drink station.

She dumped him. All that time in high school to this point, as the power couple, the popular kids, the perfect relationship, and she dumps him on the spot in front of the whole school. Dash finds himself scowling as he refills his cup for what has to be the fifth time today, hoping the soda will melt his brain with how the fizzing is overwhelming his throat at this point.

She thinks it's his problem. That it was him and not her. Yeah right, she was preening like a peacock all over the new guy, and when he got jealous and punched him to get him off her, she's the one who snapped. Whatever, both of them can go rot without him for all he cares now. He's been off the A-List a day and he still can't think strait.

Dash saw Valerie at the counter, grinning widely at him when he walked in to order. She was on the A-List at one point, beginning of freshman year. Then her dad lost all of the stuff that made her something and they just dropped her off because she wasn't of use to them anymore. If karma is real she can really go screw off now. Valerie was just smirking at him, her eyes practically screaming about how he deserves this. He's mostly by the drink counter to avoid her gaze, avoid the fact that she's right.

Another fizzing round goes down and Dash refills the cup again, steaming about the earlier events. He's lost all his friends, Kwan doesn't even listen to him and it's been only hours. The team is now blaming him for all the lost games now that he has no power over them as quarterback. His grades are still in the toilet, and without his in with the team and popular crowd, he can feel his future slipping away from him.

"This is Bull. This is all bull, it should be Paulina down in this dump, not me! It's her fault!" He growls as he punches the counter, the resounding crack of his knuckles hitting the marble causes him to recoil in pain. He'd been muttering crude and unsavory things about Paulina since the breakup. It shouldn't be like this, why does he get the short end of this stick!?

Oh, right. Because Paulina is pretty. Drop dead gorgeous in fact. It got impossibly better for her as she grew up, her tones and curves turning every head in Casper High. And she was his, to show off to the world like the trophy she was until today. He may have punched the other guy's lights out, but his face still stung from the sharp slap and scratches from her nails as a result.

More soda, that's what he needs. Maybe the fizz will dull that pain too.

The hum of the automatic doors sounds nearby, and Dash hears footsteps walk up to the counter. Mostly, anyway. There's a bit of a scuffling slide to one of the steps, like they're limping in some way. Curiosity piqued, Dash turns his head from where he is at the drink counter to spot Fenton talking to Valerie.

Fenton, huh? Where's his little posse? The Tech Nerd and the Goth are usually attached to his scrawny hip, so it's weird to not see them with him. Valerie shoots Fenton a smile before heading to get whatever the guy ordered. In turn, Fenton has his own cup to go get a drink while he waits for the food, and heads over to where Dash is. 

Yeah, he's definitely limping, though he's trying to hide it. 

"Dash! I uh.... didn't see you there..." Fenton quickly swerves around him, moving to where the drinks are. He's avoiding Dash's gaze as he moves to get some cola for himself, only for white soda water to pour out instead. "Huh. They never run out of cola here..." the nerd mutters as he picks a different drink. Dash idly wonders how long he's been drinking soda water and not cola.

The scrawny, yet significantly taller now, nerd swerves around Dash again. He's pretty agile for having a limp. 

Fenton returns to the counter, waiting for his meal. Normally, Dash would have beat the stuffing out of him in order to vent by now, but he just doesn't feel it in him to go roughing up nerdy punks today. Watching Fenton avoid him now that his social status was on his level made him feel powerless to go repremend him with a fist to the face.

Powerless again, huh? He can't even beat up not-so-puny-anymore Fenton. Where is he supposed to go from here? He refills his drink again, not caring that it's just plain soda water now, and decides to go sit down somewhere and sulk. Dash feels his head hit the table, and he closes his eyes while blocking out the world.

A moment passes before a tray clatters against his table across from him, and the leather seat across from him shuffles as someone eases into it. Dash can feel the eyes on him, gazing at him while his face is still eating the white marble pressed up against it. There's a bit of silence, the other guy sitting across from him seeming to be gauging how he'll react. Dash hardly cares right now.

"...Dash? Are you ok?" Of course it's Fenton. Curse that nerd's bleeding heart. What he cares baffles the jock, but he doesn't need Fenton's damn pity.

"Go 'way...Fen...turd" is all Dash can mutter though, not really finding it in him to use a more creative insult. But Fenton doesn't move from his seat, electing to start eating rather than leave Dash to suffer alone. Bastard. Can't he see Dash doesn't want to talk to anyone here? Least of all this looser.

"I heard about the breakup from Val a minute ago. Sorry it ended so rough for you," and there it is. The little bastard just pities him is all. Dash lifts his head to shoot Fenton a glare, before taking in how much food he has. That's three nasty meals and a drink he's sporting over there, and without his little friends around, is he seriously going to eat all of that by himself?

"You expecting a party, Fentina?" Dash growls out, still not wanting anything to do with this nerd. He hardly cares at the moment about that right now, why Fenton is even bothering to stick around with him still confusing him. The little bastard knows he's powerless now, probably wants to take advantage of that. That's how it works after all, if your powerless, even those who had less power can stomp all over you. That's life.

"No, no. It's all for me, actually. Unless you want some to go with your drink, I'm willing to share," Dash gives Fenton's smile a judging look before sitting up. Scrawny kid must want to put something on his bones with all that grub, maybe he'll be less of a wimp than he looks then. Though the scent of the unwrapped burger is wafting though the air now and making Dash hungry despite all the soda he's chugged.

Without a word, Dash swipes one of the remaining two burgers off the tray and hungrily bites into it. Fenton had jumped back a bit at his sudden movement, but makes no move to leave. He settles back into his seat and the two eat in relative silence after that.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Fenton asks after sipping some of his own soda. Sitting with him, offering him food, now letting him vent about it? What's this nerd's deal, anyway? He walks in clearly physically injured, walks up to his school bully and offers to let him talk through his love life issues. What was that stupid word Lancer was using today? Altruism. Yeah that, or something like it, Dash hardly cares about English class.

"Well, remember that exchange student from last month?" Dash starts. What the hell, why not? No one else is going to listen to him. Fenton nods, starting on his second burger. How the guy can eat so much is still a bit baffling. "Ever since he came around, Paulina had been checking him out, like a lot,"

Dash delved into the story that lead him to being kicked out of his own club. It still hurt a lot, but telling someone else certainly helped get some of the numbing pain to fade. "She'd ask how she looks when the guy would go by, preen when she had the same classes as him and make sure he'd look her way when in her best. She started to disregard our thing almost immediately and refused to hold my hand. Things just got worse after that, and when I caught wind from Star that she was going to dump me to ask him out, I just kind of snapped the next time I saw 'im."

Fenton just nods along, letting Dash go on about what had happened. "I gave him a good sock to try and break his nose. If he didn't look as good, Paulina wouldn't like him anymore. It didn't work and... Paulina gave me a good whack back before calling us off. It went further down hill when she elected to kick me out of the A-List to let the new guy take my spot. Can't believe it's only been a few hours and everything I thought I had was gone," Dash spits, letting his soda spill as his cup hits the table.

"It really is rough to lose everything like that, huh?" Fenton replies to his story.

"Yeah! What right did she have to take everything away, huh? It was her fault in the first place! If she'd stuck with me I wouldn't be in this mess!" Dash exploded, he's still furious with Paulina, that hasn't changed.

"Dash? Maybe you should take a step back. I mean yeah, you got the short end of this stick and it majorly blows, but being mad about it isn't going to make things better," the nerd pipes up, and Dash just about wants to smack his face off for even suggesting something like that, but he remembers the position they're both in. 

Fenton had been stuck at the bottom rung of the ladder since day one, after all. And he still was attached at the hip to two other nerds, made Valerie smile in a way Dash had never seen while she was on the A-List, had scientist parents who knew how to deal with all the ghosts before they started coming through and existing, and he seemed overall happier with life than dealing with being popular.

He seems to catch on to Dash's revelation. "Welcome to rock bottom, Baxter. Nowhere to go but up from here," he jokes, finishing off the last of his fries. "Hey, maybe you'll learn something they just can't teach you in school down here, who knows. After all, you don't have to be what they want you to anymore," he says with finality, standing.

"You better not tell anyone about what we talked about here today, Fenton," Dash growls out after him, though it wasn't very intimidating now.

Danny looks back to him with a smirk. "Cross my heart and hope to die," he states, though the grin widens like there's an inside joke Dash didn't catch. Danny picks up his tray and dumps the wrappers in the trash before heading out the door with less of a limp than when he came in with.

Dash is alone in the Nasty Burger again, left to think on what had just happened. There may be something he can learn like this that they can't teach in school, Danny had said. Dash chucks his empty cup in the trash from his seat as he thinks of the few words Danny had said before he'd left. He wonders what sort of thing it could be.

He's not one of the popular kids anymore. He doesn't have to be tough to keep his power, he's already lost that to Paulina taking it away. Maybe he can find something else now that he has a bunch of spare time on his hands. No friends means no after school parties and no group wailing on nerds. There's a lot of free time now.

His eyes meet Valerie's as he's walking out the door. She has a knowing smirk on.

"Did you put him up to that?" Dash finds himself asking her. She smiles wider at him, condescending but knowing.

"Me? I didn't put him up to anything. That's just how he is," she replies before turning to walk deeper into the employees only section of the store. 

Huh. He didn't know that about Danny. Is this what he meant by learning? Whatever he meant, it's probably going to be true the way things are going already. His slate is clean and things are looking a bit easier for him on a social standing, even if he has none anymore. Danny was certainly right about this being rock bottom, he thinks as he walks out the door and toward home. Maybe he's right about the other thing too.

There's nowhere to go but up.


End file.
